Wheelchair-bound character

[Vigilance]

The following is from my Blood and Circuits: Man and Machine book on prosthetics and cybernetics.

Missing Leg: A character with a missing leg is incapable of walking and must move at a crawl. Crawling characters are always considered prone in combat and their movement is limited to a 5 ft. step each round. As a full round action a crawling character may instead take two 5 ft. steps.

A character with a missing leg is incapable of the following skill checks: Balance (since the ultimate penalty of failing a Balance check is becoming prone, this skill is somewhat meaningless for a character already prone), Jump and Tumble.

A character with a missing leg suffers a -10 penalty to the following skill checks: Climb, Drive, Pilot, Ride and Swim.

A character missing a leg also suffers a -6 penalty to Initiative (while the character’s reaction time is unaffected he will simply have a harder time maneuvering and acquiring a target- even with a ranged weapon in a chaotic situation like a combat).

Most of the time a character with this condition will be considered Prone (crawling) unless he is able to find some way to support himself. A character with a missing leg is always considered flat-footed and never receives a Dexterity modifier to his Defense even if he is able to find a way to stand upright (usually by leaning against an object and/or supporting his weight on his arms alone).

Note: A number of devices will alleviate some of these penalties. A character in a wheelchair would regain the ability to make Balance skill checks (at a -10 penalty) and would have his initiative penalty reduced to -4. A wheelchair would also improve the character’s movement to 15 ft. per round on a paved surface (an electric wheelchair improves this speed to 20 ft. per round). Keep in mind that most wheelchairs are not stable and will require Balance checks in situations where a character that could walk would not need to (stairs or rough ground).

Crutches allow a character with a missing leg to operate as though he had a primitive prosthetic leg (see that device for more information).

And here's the information on prosthetics.

Primitive Prosthetic Leg: At this progress level prosthetic legs are often nothing more than a wooden extender, commonly called a “peg leg” to aid in balance and allow the wearer to stand and walk (although slowly) without the use of a cane or crutch.

This limb allows a character to make skill checks with the missing limb at a -6 penalty.

Due to the character’s limited mobility on the battlefield he suffers a -4 penalty to Initiative and his movement is limited to 10 ft. per round modified by terrain. The character is mobile however and able to defend himself (he is not considered flat-footed).

A character with a primitive prosthetic leg will occasionally have to make Balance skill checks in situations other characters would not, such as navigating stairs or walking over broken ground (check once per minute).

In combat a character with a primitive prosthetic leg must make a Balance check each time he makes a full move. As long as the character only takes a 5 ft. step he does not need to make this check (if a character takes a double move he still only needs to make one Balance check).

Once a character with a prosthetic leg has fallen he must make a Balance check (DC 15 modified by the prosthesis) to stand up again without the aid of an object to support his weight, an ally or a cane.

A character with a primitive prosthetic leg cannot benefit from the following feats: Acrobatic, Agile Riposte, Dodge, Improved Initiative, Mobility and Spring Attack.

Prosthetic Leg: These prosthetic legs are more advanced in every way. More comfortable, more natural looking and providing better balance, a character with one of these prosthetics will enjoy a high degree of mobility and freedom.

This limb allows the character to make skill checks with the missing limb at a -4 penalty.

Due to the character’s limited mobility on the battlefield he suffers a -2 penalty to Initiative and his movement is limited to 20 ft. per round modified by terrain.

A character with a prosthetic leg will have to make Balance skill checks in situations other characters would not. In combat a character with a prosthetic leg must make a Balance check each time he makes a double move in combat (takes two move actions).

A prosthetic leg offers some cosmetic value as well and will only be recognized as artificial on a Spot check of 10. A character with the Disguise skill can use his skill to disguise the appearance of his leg, adding the result of his skill check to the Spot check needed to detect the arm as artificial.

Advanced Prosthetic Leg: Advanced prosthetics allow a character almost as wide a range of movement as they do a character without any disability. Disabled persons have successfully run marathons with these limbs and soldiers have been fitted with these state of the art devices and rejoined their units in combat zones.

This limb allows the character to make skill checks with the missing limb at a -2 penalty.
An advanced prosthetic leg offers tremendous cosmetic value as well and will only be recognized as artificial on a Spot check of 20. A character with the Disguise skill can use his skill to disguise the appearance of his leg, adding the result of his skill check to the Spot check needed to detect the arm as artificial.

 

[Defender_X]

Outrun:
Requires: wheelchair
Benefit: Able to increase your base speed to 10ft more per round than the slowest or next slowest player.
Use: When running away from horrid chthullu mythos monster.
Without: Crunch!!!


brownie points to anyone that figures out the inspiration for that one.

 

[Ranger REG]

Um, what about motorized wheelchairs?

What about wheelchairs customized for sports (like those used in marathon)?

 

[Roger]

There are already some extensive rules in d20 Modern covering vehicular combat. I think it's reasonable to consider a wheelchair as a particular sort of vehicle and proceed from that.



Cheers,
Roger

 

[Morgenstern]

Yeah, with Tritons being covered in our Light of Olympus .pdf (along with centuars, gorgons, and satyrs as playable characters), we added stats for wheelchairs as personal ground vehicles in Spycraft 2.0. Seemed to work out pretty good. The speed they offer was 5 ft. + (5 ft. per point of strength bonus). Basically anyone could get around in one, but the folks that had the ripped upper body strength go faster.

 

[Pbartender]

The speed they offer was 5 ft. + (5 ft. per point of strength bonus). Basically anyone could get around in one, but the folks that had the ripped upper body strength go faster.

That reminds me... I recently had an idea for a wheelchair-bound superhero. He was going to be a super-speedster Flash-type guy, but jetted around in a wheelchair using his upper body super strength.

Never got to play him, though.

 

[jaerdaph]

I once created a wheelchair-bound NPC for a d20 Modern horror game using the Impaired Movement flaw from the Book of Distinctions and Drawbacks Modern (Cryptosnark Games), an excellent advantage/disadvantage system. Depending on how many points you spend on this flaw, a character could have a slight limp or be paraplegic.

For the wheelchair I kept it simple, and ruled that a motorized wheelchair allowed full movement (30 ft) for a medium size character, but no run action. For the non-motorized, I ruled reduced movement (20 ft), no run action. Of course, this was based on absolutely no first or second-hand knowledge of how a wheelchair operates and manuevers.

Edit:

Here's the rules from the above for the Impaired Movement (paraplegic) flaw. The 12 points are what you get to spend on other things (advantages like extra feats etc.) if you take this flaw:

[12 Pts.] Paraplegic: Your character is paraplegic. He has lost all use
of his legs and must rely upon a wheelchair or other conveyance. If
removed from such a device, he may move only by crawling while prone,
at a rate of 10 feet per round. At all times, he loses his Dex bonus to
Defense, suffers an intrinsic -2 penalty to Defense, grants attackers a +2
bonus to attack rolls, and automatically fails Climb, Jump, and Tumble
checks.
Limitation: This flaw, in its Paraplegic form, is incompatible with any feat
or FX power that the GM determines to require bipedal movement.
Paraplegism is also incompatible with the Inflexible flaw.

 

[Kheti sa-Menik]

I'm assuming that most of these rules take into account that the character is using a manual wheelchair.
What would the speed be for an electric one?

Hehe, I could see a gadget oriented player making a "voice activated chair" for totally hands free operation...

Has anyone has ever seen "War of the Worlds" the TV Series from the 80s?
Basic Premise: After the War of the Worlds invasion in 1953, the aliens didn't actually die, they went into deep hibernation and the US government sealed them up into oil drums and put them in a toxic waste facility. 30 some odd years later, the radiation from the waste has killed the germs that infected the aliens and made them somewhat resistant to them. Aliens wake up and begin claiming human bodies as hosts to protect them from the bacteria. US government puts together a team to look into wiping out the aliens.

There was a character named Norton Drake who was in a wheel chair. He was a computer genius who main project was coordinate information on the aliens, decipher their communication technology, and work with the scientists to find a technological way to beat the aliens.
He was in an electric wheelchair that he could either wheel by hand or use a hand control to drive it forward.
Also, he developed a voice activation technology for it. The chair's AI would wait until the activation phrase was uttered "Gertrude" (what Norton called the chair), then await a movement command. This command was either a number of feet and a direction, such as "4 Back".

So if Norton said "Gertrude, 3 forward" the chair would move three feet forward.
But also if Norton mapped out a specific location, like his computer lab, he could program various positions into Gertrude memory. So he could say "Gertrude, Workstation 4" and the chair would remember where he was in the room and take him to the correct area of the room. Of course, this required him to have mapped out an area....and any changes to the layout...adding furniture like a desk..would require remapping of the area in Gertrude's software.

Norton was also very good with a bo staff. He and the military character would spar frequently. Norton had fast and strong upper body strength, combined with voice control of his wheelchair and a strong intellect made him fairly formidable for a computer geek in a wheel chair.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Worlds_(TV_series)

 

[Tonguez]

Um, what about motorized wheelchairs?

What about wheelchairs customized for sports (like those used in marathon)?

my father is Partial tetraplegic and in a motor-wheelchair which is capable of top speeds of about 20km! (apparently it can be sooped up to go even faster) its also a big heavy bulky thing that is not easy to move once the brakes go on.

My father btw is perfectly healthy, still lifts weights and thus his Str, Con and Fort are fine His Dex (and Reflex) is lower due to his injury.

I also know a wrestler with no legs who is fully capable of taking down a 'able-bodied' person and putting them into painful locks (yes I speak from experience!)

As to Sports Wheelchairs I'd suspect that the 'hero chairs' being talked about above (the ones used with Wheelchair feats) are sports-chairs

(I like those feats since I have seen Paraplegic basketball players use things like Glide and Superb Control)

As t